How Peyote Recovers from SunBurn

This was exciting to see, and illustrates how the epicuticular wax that reflects ultraviolet light and prevents "sunburn", especially at high temperatures when ultraviolet is the most damaging, can be regenerated directly by the epidermal tissue itself, and DOESN'T require new growth of epidermal tissue directly from the apical meristem itself.

The apical meristem is the point in the center and top of any cactus stem where new growth is generated. Cacti also have the potential of producing secondary growth in their cambium, but these lateral meristems (which eudicots have but monocots lack) can't generate new epidermis, they can only produce cork cells, a kind of protective secondary growth which is dead at maturity.

These plants originally got sunburned because we removed the invasive buffelgrass which was shading them out. Had we not done so, they would have eventually etiolated and effectively died of starvation. Since they had already been growing in shade for so long, they did not possess the "epicuticular wax" that gives peyote its blue color. Lacking this wax, they burned quickly within a day of exposure to the hot sun, but owing to peyote's excessive amount of storage tissue located in its underground stem, they recovered in only a few months. This illustrates how quickly Peyote - and many other cacti - can heal itself, and this underground stem is what makes the cutting of Peyote by members of the Native American church completely sustainable *when done correctly* and at appropriately spaced intervals. It's also what makes poaching and digging this plant such an unnecessary *completely DICK* move, as this is equivalent to stealing from the other life forms that depend on this plant and looting habitat of its biological richness.

My only regret is that we did not come back to check on these plants sooner so that we could accurately measure how quick they recovered.